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  <main id="main" class="col-md-9"><div class="page-header">
      <img src="../logo.svg" class="logo" alt=""><h1>Future Plans and Ideas for EJAM</h1>
            
      
      <small class="dont-index">Source: <a href="https://github.com/USEPA/EJAM/blob/HEAD/vignettes/6_future_plans.Rmd" class="external-link"><code>vignettes/6_future_plans.Rmd</code></a></small>
      <div class="d-none name"><code>6_future_plans.Rmd</code></div>
    </div>

    
    
<div class="section level2">
<h2 id="status-and-plans-as-of-2024">Status and Plans as of 2024<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#status-and-plans-as-of-2024"></a>
</h2>
<div class="section level3">
<h3 id="internal-testing">Internal testing<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#internal-testing"></a>
</h3>
<p>The EJAM toolkit is being tested within EPA, just as EJScreen was
first launched internally in 2012 before it went public in 2015.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level3">
<h3 id="public-access-via-ejscreen">Public Access via EJScreen<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#public-access-via-ejscreen"></a>
</h3>
<p>EJAM itself is not an app running on a public website. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen" class="external-link uri" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen">EJScreen</a> will be able to
leverage EJAM’s technology to provide public access to batches of
reports, and will be able to do rapid multisite analysis in a future
update. EPA is working to integrate EJAM’s new toolkit into EJScreen’s
public screening and mapping web application, as a way to enable these
features as soon as possible. A web app was being tested for internal
use at EPA as of early 2024. The new features need to balance
user-friendliness of the visual interface and features, relevance to
what the public finds useful, and resources that include appropriate
documentation and user support.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level3">
<h3 id="public-access-to-open-source-softwaredata">Public Access to Open Source Software/Data<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#public-access-to-open-source-softwaredata"></a>
</h3>
<p>In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s)
Federal Source Code Policy, EPA in 2024 will be providing public access
to open source code and data that constitute EJAM. See the <a href="https://usepa.github.io/EJAM/index.html">EJAM package
documentation site</a> – the EJAM code repository, once it is made
public, will become available through links on that page.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level3">
<h3 id="possible-future-enhancements">Possible future enhancements<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#possible-future-enhancements"></a>
</h3>
<p>At the same time, EPA will be exploring what works and what is still
needed, including some of the ideas and plans listed below.</p>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="counts-of-nearby-points-of-interest">Counts of nearby points of interest<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#counts-of-nearby-points-of-interest"></a>
</h4>
<p>A feature is planned that would be able to report on the number of
user-specified points of interest (e.g., schools) at each location. For
example, it could report on how many schools are at each analyzed
location. This would report on counts in an analysis of circular buffers
(e.g., # of schools near each facility analyzed), but also for FIPS
Census units (e.g., # of schools in each County) or polygons/shapefiles
(e.g., # of schools in each high-risk zone).</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="facility-density-scores-for-all-epa-regulated-facilities">Facility Density Scores for all EPA-regulated Facilities<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#facility-density-scores-for-all-epa-regulated-facilities"></a>
</h4>
<p>A facility density indicator may be explored and pre-calculated, that
would summarize the proximity of all types of EPA-regulated facilities,
or certain subcategories, for every community in the US or within one
State of interest. This would be similar to the existing proximity
indicators such as the RMP score in EJScreen, but cover a larger range
of facilities.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="proximity-scores-for-user-specified-sites">Proximity Scores for User-Specified Sites<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#proximity-scores-for-user-specified-sites"></a>
</h4>
<p>A feature is planned that will be able to quickly calculate a new
proximity indicator for every block group in the US, to represent counts
of and distances to user-specified points such as facilities. This would
be similar to the existing proximity indicators such as the RMP score in
EJScreen, but would be calculated on the fly for any user-specified set
of points.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="written-report">Written Report<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#written-report"></a>
</h4>
<p>EJAM is designed to provide a default, standard written report, and
this feature is still in active development as of early 2024. EJAM will
provide a written report with text, graphics, and maps, ready for a user
to print, download, share, and use. Because the report is a Word
document, one can further edit it offline as needed. Users also can
choose to use just selected tables or graphics or data files (such as
for individual sites and summary statistics).</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="methods-for-identifying-and-focusing-on-key-findings">Methods for Identifying and Focusing on Key Findings<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#methods-for-identifying-and-focusing-on-key-findings"></a>
</h4>
<p>Communicating key findings is challenging when such a large number of
metrics are available across multiple locations with multiple
demographic groups. Some simple tools may be able to help with initial
filtering of results, to suggest what might be highlighted. These will
be explored for the written report, particularly for ways to provide an
Executive Summary.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="visualization-tools">Visualization Tools<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#visualization-tools"></a>
</h4>
<p>A variety of plots and maps will be explored as ways to communicate
the rich data results calculated by EJAM. For example, EJAM R functions
can calculate and display detailed estimates of the range of residential
distances to facilities within each demographic subgroup - this type of
visualization could be incorporated into the web app if there appears to
be interest in it. Another possibility is that plots, maps, and tables
could be made to interact in sync with each other, where that supports
useful data exploration.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="user-specified-indicators">User-specified Indicators<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#user-specified-indicators"></a>
</h4>
<p>EJAM in the future will also be able to analyze, aggregate, and
report on other demographic indicators (e.g., other Census ACS
variables), to include user-selected EPA-hosted layers, or even
user-provided data. In other words, an analysis would be able to include
other layers on risks or concentrations (at block group resolution), or
user-provided scores for each block group.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="api">API<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#api"></a>
</h4>
<p>To provide further flexibility and help avoid duplication of effort,
an EJAM API is planned, and will provide access to services such as fast
identification of nearby blocks or other points, summarization
(aggregation over blocks or block groups), or data.</p>
</div>
<div class="section level4">
<h4 id="spatial-resolution">Spatial Resolution<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#spatial-resolution"></a>
</h4>
<p>EJAM is designed with growth in mind, assuming that the specific
indicators of interest will expand or change over time. It is even
possible that multiple resolutions of data will need to be analyzed,
such as block, block group, and tract data for different indicators. A
subsequent refinement might even use a high-resolution raster grid of
population estimates rather than the Census Block counts currently used
for buffering and weighting block group scores for partially included
block groups.</p>
</div>
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